Fallout from Boston Marathon bombing tragedy felt in region

As news broke Friday morning that one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings had been shot and killed but the other was still on the run, Connecticut residents began reaching out to friends and relatives in the Watertown-Boston area to make sure they were safe.

Meanwhile, Amtrak service out of New London was canceled Friday as trains in and out of Boston were suspended while police searched for the second suspect.

Lauren E. Marston, who lives in Brighton, Mass., near the Watertown town line, said she and her roommates spent the day glued to the Internet and listening to a streaming police scanner. Marston, who grew up in Old Saybrook, said she doesn't have a television.

"Our neighbor has checked in on us, we have locked all the doors. We feel safe given our location to St. Elizabeth's Hospital up the street, the Allston/Brighton police department and the Lifeline ambulance service and fire station up the street," she said in an email.

In New London, people waiting to board the Cross Sound Ferry encountered police activity in the ferry parking lot on the Thames River shortly before noon in New London after a state police tactical unit and other officers had assembled there. But a New London police officer said no one was ever in any danger, and cars began boarding a ferry for Long Island after state police left the scene.

Earlier in the day, Connecticut State Police troopers were out in force along the Interstate 95 corridor looking for a Honda Civic, originally reported as a CRV, that police thought 19-year-old suspect Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev was driving. That car was later found and the search canceled.

Amtrak, which had suspended service to Boston, resumed some service between New York and Boston Friday night. Regular service is expected to resume today.

According to The New York Times, a New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police official said video surveillance footage from the stations in Providence, New Haven and New London were being reviewed to make sure the suspect didn't get off at those stations.

Avis Smith was scheduled to go to Newport News, Va., to see her ailing son who is in the hospital, but was told that she would not be able to take the 7:45 a.m. train out of New London.

Smith, who also lives in Virginia, could not contain her tears as she headed to a cab to take her back to her hotel in Groton. Her husband is doing some work at a local shipyard, she said.

Smith booked a ticket for the same time today. "I hope he holds on," she said.

Michelle Montavon of New London is a friend of several musicians who live in the Watertown, Mass., area and stayed awake all Thursday night in contact with folks who were locked down there. She and her husband, Brian Albano, are members of the Suicide Dolls, a popular regional band that plays frequently in Boston.

"They all seem to be handling it OK," Montavon said Friday morning. "They all seem to be calm, but there's a combination of feelings - anger, sadness, confusion. There are practical questions: 'I have pets and when can I walk my dog?' Or: 'I didn't get to the grocery and I'm not sure how to get the kids dinner.'"

Montavon paused. "Some react with humor, like they haven't cleaned the house and the police are going door to door. It's a way of dealing with the stress, because we're getting posts and someone has a SWAT team running through their yard, or they're hearing gunfire and explosions, and someone else is posting pictures of helicopters overhead. So that's surreal."